switched
by envysparkler
Summary: There's a chirpy, brown-haired girl that keeps showing up in his dreams. - Mai, Gene.
1. Chapter 1

**a/n:** A little thought on Mai's mind connection. This is part of my oneshot anniversary celebration! I've spent four years on fanfiction, whoo!

 **dedication:** To the thousands of possibilities waiting for us.

 **disclaimer:** I don't own Ghost Hunt.

 **summary:** There's a chirpy, brown-haired girl that keeps showing up in his dreams. - Mai, Gene.

* * *

 _ **switched**_

* * *

He disembarks in Japan. There's a case he's checking out on his own – he's an adult. He can do things by himself. But still, he misses his brother and he's tired from the long flight, so he falls asleep the minute his head hits the motel room pillow.

There's a girl in his dreams. He's lucid dreaming and he stares at the girl. The girl stares back, blinking furiously. She looks like she's about to cry.

"Hello," he starts off easily. Inwardly, he's wondering why he can't even book a room in a motel without ghosts appearing – he has a curse. But it's good for his job, so he doesn't complain.

"Hello," the girl responds. He doesn't ask her name – some ghosts don't respond well to that. Instead, he gets his information from her appearance.

She's clearly Japanese, late teens. Summer clothing and quite expensive at that. She's looking at him like she's trying not to cry, so he must look familiar to her.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, and the girl blinks at him. One hand goes to cover her mouth in shock and she turns a deep red. He's confused.

"I'm so sorry," she blurts out, and disappears.

He wakes up, bewildered.

* * *

An hour later, he's willing to brush the incident aside. He's asked the motel manager and there's been no strange deaths in the past century. He's called his brother – no strange cases on that side, either. Putting it aside as a case of random astral plane walking, he focuses on the case.

There's a cabin in the woods, and it's rumored to be haunted. Every once in a while, hikers go missing. The owner of the property wants to clear it up – there are wealthy buyers looking and he doesn't want _them_ to go missing.

So he settles in at the nearby town and starts looking through the archives. The librarian sets him up with old newspapers, but he's not that good at Japanese, and he's only reached through half the stack when he decides to call it a day.

The girl shows up again. Somehow, he's not surprised.

* * *

"Hello," he says again, deciding to be a little more forward. "Why are you here?"

The girl opens her mouth, closes it, and opens it again. "A school bus full of children," she says finally, "It went missing. The teacher's the one that took it – she killed all of them, one by one."

Then she disappears.

* * *

He asks about the bus directly and the librarian directs him to the correct newspapers. It happened in a nearby town. A teacher took her entire class out on a field trip, none of them returned. They never found the bus either.

Ghosts bent on revenge were deadly. Children bent on revenge?

He shudders and hopes it isn't the case.

Unfortunately, by the time he finishes reading the articles, he's forced to conclude that it might be true. The bodies that the police were able to find had marks of gruesome strangulation. The children might be enacting their deaths on innocent people.

The girl twists her mouth when he says that and doesn't meet his eyes. "Go alone," she says softly, "They target more effectively in a group."

* * *

He does some more research. All the people that went missing were in a group. He decides to go alone.

* * *

He finds the cabin easily enough. It's not spooky at all in the midday light. He steps past the doorframe, wincing as the floorboards creak. He walks through the rooms, noting the absence of any presence whatsoever.

Then he feels it. An icy chill, seeping its way down his spine. He turns, half-dreading the sight.

A group of children are playing in the room – their hands are clasped and they're spinning in a circle, singing a song. He feels sick – the children can't be more than six.

When they finish playing, they turn to him and smile. "Hello, oniichan," they course. He manages a wan smile in reply.

"You should watch out, oniichan," one of them says solemnly.

"Or she'll get you too."

The ritual paper is already at his fingers as he spins. The teacher, he surmises, but she looks nothing like the smiling young woman in the papers. Her mouth is twisted and her skin hangs haggard on her face. He finishes the chant and waves the paper.

She's gone.

He doesn't have to turn to see the children start to disappear – already the air is getting warmer.

* * *

He goes to sleep quite content. His case is solved and he'll be back in England by the end of the week. But when he closes his eyes, the girl appears again, looking more frantic.

"What is it?" he asks again, though he despairs of getting an answer. He thought that she wanted justice for the children, but it's apparent that isn't true.

She worries at her lips and mumbles something indistinct.

"I'm sorry?" he asks again. She looks at him, stricken.

"Be careful."

He wakes up with her words ringing in his ears.

* * *

The bus that's supposed to take him to the airport has broken down and he decides to walk. It's a few miles to the next town and the empty road will give him the solitude he needs to think about the girl's words. Ghosts always have an agenda, but he can't figure out what the girl wants.

He automatically steps to the side when he hears the distant roar of an engine. She seemed so worried and it looked like she was trying to warn him. But he's left with only vague advice and he's frustrated.

He's still thinking about the girl when the car runs him over.

* * *

"Oh my god!" the girl screams, crumpling to his knees. He stares at her in shock – the situation hasn't fully sunk in yet.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!" she wails, "I changed so much!"

"What?" he asks.

"I told you to be careful!" she turns on him, as if it was his fault he got run over.

"You weren't very specific," he points out.

The girl nearly pulls her hair out in fury, glaring at him. She mutters something about idiocy and families and turns to him, her face deadly serious. "You want specific?" she says, "I'll give you specific. Do not move, do not flinch, if you can – _do not breathe_. Pretend like you're dead."

"What?" he asks again. She's crazy.

"Do what I say!" she stares at him, and he finds himself convinced by the burning emotion in her eyes. It looks like she's desperate – desperate not to lose him? He doesn't know what's going on.

He comes back to reality as the car door opens. He keeps himself still even as a thousand injuries vie for attention. He can hear the click of heels and a sharp gasp as the driver looks at him. He doesn't know who it is and why he's listening to the girl, but he doesn't move.

Eventually, the driver gets back in the car and drives away. He waits until he's certain she's gone before painfully extracting his thankfully intact cell phone from his pocket and calling for help. His passable Japanese is rendered worse from the pain, but he manages to give directions.

* * *

The girl doesn't show up when he's in the hospital, nor when he's discharged and on the plane back to London. He figures that saving his life was her last good deed, even if he still hasn't figured out how she saved him.

But she appears again as soon as he goes to sleep in his own room.

"Now, tell me," he demands as soon as he sees her, " _Why are you here_?"

The girl smiles, "It's okay. I've changed enough. I can tell you now."

"Changed what?"

"My name is Mai," she holds her hand out, "I worked for a company called SPR, Shibuya Psychic Research, under a man I called Naru." He starts in shock. "Naru came to Japan to investigate his brother's death and decided to help out in paranormal investigations along the way."

"What?" he asks, becoming painfully aware that it's a question he asks often.

"You – Eugene Davies, are the brother that died. You were run over by a woman in a car. When she discovered you stirring, she ran over you again, then dumped your body in a lake. You're the reason that Naru moved to Japan, the reason he founded SPR, and the reason he's been miserable for the rest of his life."

"You saved me," Gene says, astounded by the information she's telling him.

"You saved me in another life," she smiles, "I thought I should return the favor." He can see the tears threatening to fall.

"You changed the timeline," he says softly, aware of the magnitude of her decision, "My brother will never move to Japan and found the company you work at."

"No," Mai says.

"You love him," Gene says, seeing her face twist.

"Yes," Mai admits.

"Why are you doing this?" he asks.

"Because I love him too much," Mai says, "And the only thing he ever wanted was you, alive."

"Mai," Gene says softly, stepping forward, but she's dissolving as he speaks.

"Goodbye, Gene," she says past the tears streaming down her face, "Take care of Naru for me."

She's gone before he reaches her.

* * *

 **tbc**

* * *

 **a/n:** Sad, I know, but I wanted to write a reverse of Gene helping Mai in her dreams, and it somehow turned into Mai playing a time-traveling martyr.


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n:** Here's the sequel that everyone asked for. Hopefully it'll be what you guys wanted!

 **dedication:** To everyone who requested a continuation.

 **disclaimer:** I don't own Ghost Hunt.

 **summary:** There's a chirpy, brown-haired girl that keeps showing up in his dreams.

* * *

 _ **switched**_

 **chapter two**

* * *

Naru is beginning to think that his brother is hiding something from him. He barely eats before bolting from the table, he's taking more and more cases on his own, and he spends so much time astral plane walking that Naru doesn't think he's getting any normal sleep.

None of his attempts to corner his twin are working either – Gene brushes off his concern and exits conversations so abruptly that Naru's finally been reduced to astral walking to talk to his own _brother_.

Gene is studying a piece of paper so intently he doesn't even realize when Naru walks up to him. "Eugene Davies," Naru says flatly, and doesn't even smile when Gene jumps, startled.

"Naru," Gene tries to smile, "What are you doing here?" He subtly hides the paper behind his back, but Naru's known Gene all his life and subtlety is not his strong suit.

"What is going on?" Naru asks, ignoring his brother's question.

"What are you talking about?" Gene asks, playing innocent. Naru frowns and Gene pretends not to notice. "Oh, look, squirrel!" he shouts suddenly, his eyes going wide and despite himself, Naru turns. When he looks back, Gene is gone.

Seventeen years and that trick still works on him. Naru curses himself and wakes up.

* * *

After the astral plane incident, Gene is exponentially more difficult to corner. He mumbles excuses for missing dinner and disappears from the mansion. He's still astral walking, but Naru can't figure out where he is and his brother's phone records and credit card transactions reveal nothing.

Until they do.

Gene buys a ticket to Japan.

* * *

Naru's not an idiot. In fact, he's a certified genius. So it doesn't take him long to put the pieces together. All of Gene's strange behavior only started after he went to Japan.

Naru remembers the car accident and frowns. Perhaps his brother was more scarred from the event than Naru realized.

In any case, it's Naru's duty as the elder – by five minutes – to figure out what's going on and help his little brother – by five minutes – lest he get into any more trouble.

Naru conveniently ignores the part of his brain that reminds him that Gene only gets into trouble getting Naru out of it.

Naru also buys a ticket to Japan on the same flight.

* * *

After disembarking, Naru begins to think that this isn't such a brilliant idea. He's never been to Japan before and the people and the language are foreign to him. He can barely keep sight of his brother amongst the mass of black-haired people and struggles to reach him through the crowd.

Unfortunately, when he reaches the spot where he saw Gene last, he only finds an empty taxi stand.

His brother is gone and Naru is in a strange country without any help.

Naru debates calling his brother, but rejects that idea out of pride. Then he considers getting on the next flight back to England, but rejects that idea for plain, simple curiosity.

Instead, he buys a Japanese book and orders a taxi to a motel in the city.

* * *

He finishes the book in a day. His Japanese is heavily accented, but passable and Naru wastes no time in exploring around. He asks passerby if they've seen someone who looks exactly like him but Tokyo is a big city and Gene may not even still be here.

Naru compounds the problem by scowling at everyone he sees.

His astral walking hasn't yielded any fruitful results, and neither has any other of his ESP abilities. His brother is determined to hide from him, even if he doesn't know that Naru is in Japan.

With nothing else to do, and bored out of his mind, Naru decides to look for a case.

* * *

There's a school nearby that's planning of renovating one of their old buildings. The only problem is that every time someone goes near the building, they end up getting hurt.

Naru hangs around the campus for a day, and overhears a lot of news about the upcoming renovations. The wealth of data astounds him – the stories range from old Army hospitals to suicidal teachers and burned-down classrooms.

Naru takes the case.

* * *

She broke his camera. Naru is filthy stinking rich, of course, but it took him an hour and a half of mimicry and heavily accented Japanese to _buy_ that camera and now _she broke it_.

The student smiles sheepishly but doesn't seem to be otherwise affected by his glare.

"I'm sorry," she says, bowing, "If you tell me how much it costs I'll repay it…" She looks doubtful, though, and so does Naru. Judging by the state of her clothes, she doesn't seem to have an excess of money lying around.

But she _broke_ his camera.

Naru gets a brilliant idea – he _is_ the smarter twin, after all. Naru's in desperate need of an assistant, and this girl could work as one for this case.

He broaches this with the girl – Taniyama Mai, she introduces – and she agrees.

Naru sends her to go buy another camera.

* * *

A few hours later, Naru is sorely regretting his offer. Taniyama-san is loud and annoying and christened him 'Naru' within five minutes of knowing him.

Gene is laughing somewhere, he knows that.

Naru, in turn, is irritated and frustrated and about two seconds from ripping his hair out. There's nothing to find in the building – it's empty of all cold spots and breezes and the closest thing to haunting it has is the graffiti on the sides. The legend seems to be false.

They're just about to leave when Taniyama-san trips and nearly falls down the stairs. Naru catches her at the last minute and Taniyama-san spends the rest of the day profusely apologizing for being a klutz.

* * *

There's a student making a lot of fuss over the renovation project. Naru stays the next day, just to make absolutely sure there's nothing haunting the building, and he runs into the girl. Mai introduces her as a classmate.

A few minutes later, the girl is lying at the bottom of the stairs. She was clearly pushed.

* * *

It's a mark of how well Mai is under pressure that she doesn't react to the fact that something invisible appeared not five feet from her and was solid enough to push a teenage girl down a flight of stairs. Instead, she runs to call the hospital.

The girl is fine, but shaken up.

Naru frowns.

* * *

It's a poltergeist. That's the only explanation. The girl and only the girl is adamant about the presence of a ghost and said 'ghost' only appears when the girl is nearby.

Naru quickly preforms a test and confirms his hypothesis.

Not that there was really any chance of him being wrong.

* * *

Naru is getting ready to say goodbye when Gene shows up. To tell the truth, Naru had half-forgotten his _real_ reason for coming to Japan and seeing Gene standing there, his eyes wide and his mouth open, reminds Naru that he wasn't here to play house with schoolchildren.

But Gene isn't staring at him, he's staring at Mai. He looks like he's seen a…well, actually not a ghost. Gene's used to seeing ghosts.

"Taniyama Mai," he breathes out, and Naru blinks in shock. Is Mai the reason he's been acting so strange? It can't be – Gene's case wasn't anywhere near Tokyo and Mai hasn't left the city since she was born.

Mai looks at Naru quizzically and Naru fills her in. "My twin brother, Eugene Davies," Naru introduces, and Gene spares a half-second to look at him in surprise.

"It's so nice to meet you," Mai bows and Gene backs away a step. And another step, until he turns and runs away.

Naru is so shocked that he doesn't even bother covering it up.

"He doesn't usually act like that," Naru says, unsure of who he's trying to reassure.

Mai smiles, "More narcissistic and vain, then?"

"No," Naru scowls, "He's nothing like me." Mai giggles and Naru feels a strange urge to say something stupid, just to hear her laugh again. He quells the urge and clears his throat, "I should probably go see what's bothering him."

"You should," Mai says, and reaches up to kiss him on the cheek, "Goodbye, Naru." She turns and walks away.

Naru doesn't move for five minutes.

* * *

Naru spends the rest of the way to the motel alternatively cursing his brother and himself. At least he still has Mai's number and it's not like Japan is _that_ far from England.

When he opens his door, he sees Gene sitting on the bed with a bright smile and his packed suitcase.

"What's wrong with you?" Naru says flatly, relieved to finally be able to speak English again.

"Nothing," Gene says cheerfully, and the statement is so _Gene_ that Naru believes him. "I was working through some stuff, but I'm fine now, I promise." Gene holds out his pinky and Naru realizes his brother is serious.

Feeling a little childish, Naru also extends his pinky finger and locks it with his twin's.

"Also, Dad says he's opening a branch of SPR here in Japan and you're heading it!" Gene spills out in a rush, before leaving in a blur.

Naru gapes at the empty spot where his brother stood just seconds ago.

It seems like his stay in Japan has been extended.

Naru thinks of a chirpy brown-haired girl and does nothing to stop the smile spreading across his face.

* * *

Gene is almost sulking. It took him _months_ to track Taniyama Mai and his brother finds her on his first trip to Japan without even _trying_?

But he sees the look on Naru's face, the twitch of his lips when she talked, the slight pink that covered his face when she smiles.

He understands what she meant, the time-traveler who Gene does not recognize in the teenage girl Naru has befriended.

They were meant to be together and now nothing is standing in their way.

* * *

 **fin**

* * *

 **a/n:** I hope it met all of your expectations!


End file.
